Get ready for any emergency

Are you
ready for anything? Next week is national Civil Defence Get
Ready Week – a time to check how ready you, your family or
your business is to manage in an emergency.

The theme of
this year’s Get Ready Week, 21-27 September, is ‘What
would you do?’. It’s a reminder that disaster can strike
any time, when people are at home, at work or travelling and
may need to survive on their own for up to three days.

Bay
of Plenty Regional Manager of Civil Defence Emergency
Management Clinton Naude said because of its location and
environment, New Zealand faced many potential
disasters.

“With some, such as storms or volcanic
eruption, there may be time for a warning, but others such
as earthquakes, or tsunami close to land may happen without
any warning. Everyone needs to be prepared to handle an
emergency at any time,” he said.

“This is the time to
check your family’s emergency plan and make sure everyone
knows what to do. Check what’s in your emergency kit,
replace water or food that may be dated, make sure your
business’s emergency plans are up to date. The aim is to
get people thinking about what they would do in an emergency
if it happened while they were going about their daily
lives, at home, at work or out and about.”

During this
week, there will be displays at local council offices and
participating agencies and a number of alerting, warning and
communication tools will be tested.

The Bay of Plenty’s
text and email alerting systems will be tested on Sunday, 28
September at 10am with a mass text and email sent to those
who have already signed up for the alerts. Anyone can sign
up for free on Bay of Plenty Civil Defence Emergency
Management’s webpage, www.bopcivildefence.govt.nz

“We
hope that everyone will take a moment during next week to
think about what they would do in any type of emergency, and
check that they have everything they need to keep safe for a
few days,” Mr Naude
said.

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